


Work in Progress

by NovaRasalas



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: AkuRoku - Freeform, Androids, Axel/Roxas - Freeform, Kingdom Hearts AU, M/M, Roxas at a respectable age, Roxas at a respectable hieght, There will be so many characters..., a few OCs here and there, android!Axel, androids learn to love, recent college graduate Roxas, slight FF7 crossover
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-24
Updated: 2016-10-24
Packaged: 2018-07-24 03:48:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7492365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NovaRasalas/pseuds/NovaRasalas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once we teach our creations the meaning of being human, who are we to consider them anything less?</p>
<p>After a series of concerning events not involving him in the slightest, recent college graduate Roxas finds himself mentoring an android with freshly minted emotions. Things were going fine, right up until they weren't. Nothing is ever easy, is it?</p>
<p>A story of a robot and a real boy, featuring love and friendship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The transport van lurched to the left as the driver swerved to avoid something in the road. Hours of heavy rains had wreaked havoc on these county roads, turning them from highways into obstacle courses.

The two occupants strapped in the back were not having a good time.

“…this is ridiculous,” one said, righting himself.

“The guy needs his eye checked,” said the other. He put a gloved hand over his right eye. “I mean, you saw him, right?”

“Of course I saw him.”

“Ah…” he said, taking his hand down from his face. “Does he seem…I don’t know. Different from the people they usually hire…?”

His companion closed his eyes for a moment, in thought.

“He doesn’t seem like a typical employee, no. But I have to trust that he was vetted as well as anyone else.”

A silence lapsed between them as the driver made another evasive maneuver. This journey had been monumentally uninteresting. The back of the van was barely more than a cargo hold: no windows, either on the sides or into the driver’s cab, just two bench seats lining the sides. The only thing that could be heard, other than the occasional splash as they drove through a puddle, was the muffled sound of the driver’s obnoxious taste in music, turned up obscenely loud. Both of them were ready for this trip to be over.

“Hey, Saïx…anyone ever tell you that you cross your legs like a girl?”

Saïx narrowed his eyes at the man seated across from him.

“Shut it, Axel.”

“Just trying to make conversation…”

“You’re terrible at it,” Saïx chided. He uncrossed his legs, and then almost immediately re-crossed them.

“Nervous?”

“Of course I’m nervous. There are so many ways this could go wrong.”

“Don’t be so…”

“Negative?” Saïx asked, sudden irritation in his voice. “You know what happened to me. What’s still happening. They almost had to…”

“But they didn’t,” Axel interrupted, leaning forward as much as the restraints would allow him. “They didn’t, and now they’re going to fix both of us.”

Saïx only gave him a mournful look before turning away. Axel tried to think of something else to say. His companion kept showing all of these pesky emotions, and emotions were something that neither one of them was good with.

Waiting until the vehicle was relatively stable, Axel unfastened his restraints and moved across to sit beside Saïx.

“Stop…that’s dangerous.”

“Don’t care,” Axel replied. He settled in close to Saïx and threw and arm over his shoulders, both in effort to comfort his companion and stabilize himself. . He reached his other hand over and took down the hood that Saïx had kept on over his head. Before pulling his hand away, he ran it over Saïx’s hair, smoothing it down.

Saïx stilled for a moment before smiling slightly.

“Is this supposed to be comforting?”

“Yeah,” Axel said, giving a squeeze. “Is it working?”

“…..it is,” Saix said. He put an arm around Axel’s waist and pulled him closer.

“It’s difficult. I feel obligated to feel for the both of us.”

“Well, that’s what we’re going to get taken care of,” Axel said. “Then we can both be high-strung and grumpy.”

Saïx rolled his eyes, but didn’t say anything. Together they found a comfortable silence, the two of them enjoying just being near one another. The past few months had been hectic, and they had been kept apart for much longer than either of them cared for.

“…is it worth it?” Axel asked, breaking the silence.

“Hm?”

“The emotions. Are they worth it, even with…with the problems you had?”

“I…” Saïx began, then stopped. He struggled to put his thoughts into words. “I can see the potential in it. But for now…no. They’re uncontrollable, intense. I could hurt someone. I almost hurt you. That’s the worst feeling of all.”

Axel nodded, and the two of them fell silent once more.

The van jerked again, more violently than ever. Saïx tightened his grip on Axel to keep him from flying around the vehicle.

“You need to strap in. I told you this was dangerous.”

“Yeah…” Axel said, timing the moment just right to let go of Saïx and move back to his seat.

He’d just made over, had just grabbed the seat restraints when the van gave another lurch. Instead of correcting, the vehicle kept going, apparently off road as they jumped and skipped over the uneven terrain.

Axel struggled to maintain his grip on the restraint, but another sharp turn flung him towards the other side of the van and it slipped from his grasp. Then, he was suddenly overcome with the feeling of weightlessness, and gave a small, pained yelp as he slammed into the roof of the van. The entire vehicle had gone airborne.

The last thing he saw was Saïx’s face, twisted in fear, as he reached out to him.

The world went black.

 

\---

 

“…el! Wake up, Axel!”

Axel felt the sharp shock of being forced into conciseness. Cold reboots were always harsh on an androids system. 

All he could do at this point was hear. It was a nice setup for the techs that worked on him: manually boot the androids system and give him a command before he got any funny ideas or asked any questions. But no commands came. There was only the sound of rain, pouring down from above him. He heard Saïx, screaming at him inches from his face.

Second to come to him was feeling. He felt the cold ground beneath him, soft from the days rains. Two things he felt on his face; Saïx’s breath as he begged Axel to wake up, and the steady drip of something onto his cheeks.

Scent was next. He could smell the pine needles and decaying plant matter that littered the ground, as well as the dirt that had been turned to mud around him.

He took a breath.

“I’m here,” he said, opening his eyes. It had been early evening when they’d set out. But now, between the dense cloud cover, the thick growth of trees, and the moonless night, it was almost impossibly dark.

“Thank god…” Saïx said, the words coming out as a relieved sigh. “What do you remember?”

“I don’t…that’s hasn’t come online yet…” Axel’s eyes widened as he looked up at Saïx.

“What the hell happened?!”

Two gashes marked Saïx’s face. Starting high on his forehead and ending far below his eyes on his cheeks, they met between his eyes to form an X . A thick, purple liquid was dripping from the wound. Coolant, or to the sophisticated android, blood.

“It’s quite a story,” Saïx replied. “The short of it is that we, in fact, do not trust the driver.”

“The driver…” Axel closed his eyes tightly and tried to recall anything from the immediate past. Suddenly, the memories came back to him in a flood: a van, bad driving, annoying music, falling.

“What did he do?” Axel questioned as he began to sit up. Saïx pushed him back down.

“Stay low,” he said. “It seems to be a plot to steal us. I had just made it out of the van when 3 more men showed up. They nearly disabled me. One of them lovingly carved this into my face.”

“Did you lose them?” 

“For now, maybe. The driver shot me with something; probably a tracking device,” Saïx said, then shook his head. “There was no time to stop, though. I found you not far from the wreck. I dragged you down here. I couldn’t tell if you were alive or not.”

“Where is it? Can we get it off of you,” Axel said, pushing against Saïx as he tried again to sit up.

“It’s on my back, but it’s deep. There’s no time to work on it. You have to get out of here.”

“I’m not leaving you! We can do this! Just...”

“No!” Saïx shouted. He finally moved back to allow Axel to sit up. “I’m not letting them catch both of us.”

“Saïx...” Axel pleaded, pushing up out of the mud. He put his hands on Saïx’s shoulders before twisting them in the fabric of his coat. “You’re my brother. I can’t do this without…”

“You remember the procedures?” Saïx interrupted, giving him a cool and serious look. “Where you need to go? Your contact?”

“…yes.”

“Good. Stand up.”

They both stood. Saïx reached up and smoothed Axel’s hair down before pulling his hood over his head.

“I’ll lead them the other way. You run as fast as you can.”

“How can you ask me to do this?” Axel demanded. 

Saïx gave him a look that was both frustrated and sad.

“How could you expect me to leave you in danger?” He held his gaze for a moment before putting and hand on Axel’s neck, gloved fingers digging into the left side. 

“One more thing.”

Saïx found what he was looking for and Axel felt himself go blank. 

Axel had only experienced this sort of thing a handful of times before. When the technicians and scientists needed to go deep into an android’s programming quickly, a certain set of buttons hidden under the skin on their necks gave them access to a control panel. From here, any part of the android could be reworked. Only the techs with high rankings were given this privileged access.

Yet here was Saïx, taking that privilege for himself.

Axel could do nothing to stop it; once the process was started, he was only vaguely aware of his outside surroundings. He could hear Saïx saying something, but he sounded so far away that he couldn’t actually hear any of the words.

As suddenly as it started, it ended; Saïx pushed another button, and Axel felt himself pop back into the real world.

“What did you do?” he demanded.

“I activated your drive.”

“What?!” Axel shouted, shocked. “You can’t…how did you even…? Why? That’s supposed to happen in a controlled environment!”

“If something else happens, if you don’t make it to the contact,” Saïx began. He took a step back and looked directly into Axel’s eyes. “You may need to blend in. You’re no good with emotions, you’ll stand out too much. They’d find you in an instant. But like this, you’ll have a better chance of getting away.”

“I don’t like any of this…”

“Neither do I, Axel. But it has to be done.” Saïx raised his hand to his face to wipe away some of the coolant that was slowly flowing down his face, around the sides of his nose. It was only a matter of time now before he began to overheat.

“I’ve stayed too long. They’ll be catching up soon,” Saïx said. He considered the hurt look on Axel’s face. “Look, if something happens to me, they did a full back up before we left. They can always rebuild…”

“It won’t be you,” Axel said, looking away. “They’ll say it is, but it won’t be. I’ll still have to live with this.”

“Then come save me.”

“…what?” Axel looked back to Saïx. Save him? He barely had any autonomy of his own, how could he save someone else? But he knew that if anything truly terrible happened to Saïx, he’d never forgive himself.

“Of course,” he said, nodding at Saïx. He stood a bit taller and threw his shoulders back in a false display of confidence. “You’re saving me now. It’s only fair that I return the favor.”

Saïx gave him a sad smile and nodded in return. He pulled his own hood over his bright, blue hair, nearly becoming invisible in the darkness.

“I’ll be waiting for you. But now, you, go that way,” he pointed behind Axel, to the north west.

“Right,” Axel said, glancing over his shoulder to look to where Saïx was pointing. “This isn’t goodbye…”

Before he could finish, he heard the sound of crunching leaf litter under foot. He knew, even before he turned his gaze forward again, that Saïx had left.

Taking a few seconds to collect his thoughts, he did the same.

 

\---

 

Saïx had run a half mile before he had to stop. His breathing was harsh as his body attempted to cool itself; his low coolant was really becoming a problem.

He looked around himself, searching for any signs of his would-be-kidnappers, but could find nothing but trees. The rain had slowed to nearly stopping, but the woods were full of the sound of water dripping from the leaves above. He approached the nearest tree and placed a hand on the trunk, leaning some of his weight on it. He then tilted his head skyward, eyes closed, hoping that the falling water would somehow assist in cooling him.

As he considered his next move, he felt a presence approaching from behind. He didn’t need to turn around. He knew who it was.

“Well, well…look who we have here,” the man said. Saïx could practically hear the man’s scared face split into a sleazy grin. “You run pretty fast; it was hard to track you down. Lucky for me you stopped just long enough for me to sniff you out.”

Saïx lowered his head and closed his eyes tightly.

“What do you want?”

“You, princess. And the other one, wherever he is.” The man laughed. “So, did you find your little boyfriend? I know you were looking for him.”

Saïx swallowed hard. He could not let Axel be found.

“No, I didn’t.” His voice wavered slightly. 

“ _‘I didn’t’_ , he says. Ha! As if.” The man reached up and moved his dark hair out of his face; his ponytail had come undone in the mayhem of the assault after the crash. He then flipped up the patch covering his right eye, revealing a mechanism with a small, yellow light. “I can hear it in your voice. Aren’t emotions great? Betray us every time.”

Saïx stayed silent, trying to keep himself calm. He could feel a certain desperate viciousness welling up inside of him. If he gave in now, he may injure himself even more, overheat to the point of his body becoming unsalvageable. Axel would have no one left to save.

“Turn around”, the man commanded.

Saïx turned around to face him. There was nothing else he could do.

The man was holding a rifle; the same one he’d used to shoot Saïx with previously. He kept it pointed at Saïx as he pulled the bolt back. Reaching into a pocket, he produced a single bullet and placed it into the chamber before locking the bolt back into place.

“There’s a good boy,” the man sneered. He then made a disappointed face and shrugged one shoulder. “Eh, this is only half of what I came here for, but I guess you’ll do.” 

With a press of a button, the weapon began charging an electrical impulse, its blue glow illuminating the surrounding area in a sickly, blue light. He raised the gun up to his right shoulder and sighted with his glowing “eye”. He chuckled, sneering again.

“Nighty night, sleeping beauty.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for joining me as I work my way back into writing!
> 
> I'm thinking this fic could be fairly long, and hopefully better with time. It's been literally years since I've posted any sort of writing to be seen by the public. To be honest, I'm kinda nervous.
> 
> If you see any typos or otherwise terrible grammar, let me know. Sometimes my brain likes to switch things up on me; I once wrote a FF7 one shot where I constantly misspelled Cloud as Could. Yikes.


	2. Chapter 2

Far later than he intended, Cid Highwind hit the lights in his office. Summer was here, and as usual that meant new employees fresh out of training and more work than they could handle. It also meant more paperwork. Luckily, the new kid he’d hired had a knack for keeping things organized. Cid couldn’t wait to get him fully trained.

Locking and closing the office door, he stepped out into the garage. He turned his gaze to the wall on his left where his work gear hung on pegs: gloves, goggles, work apron. It’d been at least a month since he’d needed them, stuck in the office as he was. Truth be told, he was more than itching to get back to tinkering. 

He walked through the garage, intending to double check the doors and turn out lights when something caught his eye. The hood of one of the two cars being worked on had been left up with a work lamp still hanging from the hook, still on. Cid rolled his eyes and moved to go fix it, but when he did he clipped the edge of a work table with his hip, sending a wrench that had been hanging precariously over the side clattering to the floor.

Cid picked it up and placed it back onto the table. He could see it all now. The work table covered in tools; tools that were supposed to be put back in their designated places at the end of the shift. Used towels, both paper and cloth, were littering the ground around the garage; towels that were supposed to be put in the trash or the bin to be washed. The diagnostic machine in the far corner, the one that personally cost Cid thousands of dollars, had been left powered on. 

Clenching his teeth and muttering obscenities, he walked to turn off the light and machine, the whole while trying to decide who to yell and tomorrow and who to fire. Or both. Shame the new office kid wasn’t a gearhead; he seemed to be the type that could at least clean up after himself.

As he walked to the door leading out, he reached up and plucked the cigarette from behind his left ear and placed it between his lips. His last smoke break was an hour ago and he was fighting the urge to light up before he even made it outside.

Finally heading out, he fumbled with his keys for a moment before finding the right one and locking the door. He leaned back on it and searched for his lighter. Finding it, he opened the top and flicked the wheel, watching as the flame danced in the cool night air. He’d quit one day, he always promised himself. Today was not that day.

He brought the lighter to the cigarette in his mouth, cupping it to keep the flame stable. Just before the cigarette caught the fire, he heard someone walking through the gravel parking lot to his right. This was odd for two reasons, one being that the shop had been closed for hours and the second because people usually arrived in cars to a car repair shop. He closed the lid to the lighter to extinguish the flame and turned to give the newcomer an unfriendly look.

“Who the hell are you?” Cid demanded, moving the unlit cigarette to hang from the corner of his mouth.

“I’m looking for a man named Cid,” the stranger replied.

Cid glanced down at the name embroidered on his work shirt: Cid Highwind, Owner. Then he looked up that the sign on the building, presently illuminated by flood lights: Cid’s Auto Repair. 

“…I reckon ya found him.”

“Code 594, Daybreak,” the stranger said, taking a step closer. “I was instructed that in the case of an emergency, I was to seek out the nearest Garden contact.”

The cigarette hanging from Cid’s lips fell to the ground as his mouth hung open in quiet shock. Oh, he definitely signed up for this as he quit that particular line of work, but he never figured it would ever actually happen.

“Well,” he said, digging his keys back out of his pocket and unlocking the door. “Come in here and tell me about it.”

\---

With shirt off and jeans undone and halfway down his hips, Roxas paused in undressing to consider the doorbell that had just rung. He turned to the clock on the nightstand and glared at it as if it had something to do with the noise.

11:24 p.m.

The doorbell chimed again.

_What are the chances that if I ignore them, they’ll just go away?_ Roxas thought to himself.

Not very good, apparently. The doorbell sounded for the third time. Roxas sighed.

“I should go out there naked,” he said out loud as he refastened his pants. He collected his shirt form the floor and walked out into the hallway. “Serve you right…oh, what the hell?”

Instead of the doorbell, his visitor had resorted to pounding on the door and bellowing.

“Roxas! I know you’re in there!”

Cid?

Oh, this was great. Roxas frowned as he walked through the kitchen towards the door, putting his shirt on as he moved. He’d only just started working for Cid two weeks ago, though he’s known the man since childhood. Anytime the family needed a vehicle repaired, they’d head to Cid’s. He was full of crazy stories about the things he worked on as an engineer and a mechanic, and routinely lamented about how he was so very close to being an astronaut. Sure, the man was a character, but what could have happened to warrant this?

The pounding and bellowing ceased in favor of rapid fire pressing of the doorbell button. Roxas’ eye twitched.

Roxas approached the door, then hesitated, taking a deep breath and slowly let it out. He reached out and threw the deadbolt harder than was typically necessary. As it clacked into place, the ruckus stopped. He unlocked the doorknob and pulled the door open, fixing Cid with a tired, irritated expression.

“Look, Rox…I’m sorry about this, but I need a favor,” Cid said. He glanced over his shoulder. “Can we come in?”

We?

Roxas craned his neck to look behind his employer. Sure enough, there was another person, tall and skinny, wearing all black.

“Um...” Roxas said dumbly. His tired mind was struggling to process everything. Late night, sketchy looking stranger, and…Cid. Roxas knew that he owed that man a lot, but this? This was beyond the pale

But again…his job. It wasn’t the best, but it was all he had. And while he didn’t think Cid would hold it against him to the point of firing him if he turned him away, he didn’t want to take the chance. Roxas was becoming familiar with the specific desperation experienced by recent college grads, and so, mostly likely against his better sense, he stepped aside and held the door for the two to step inside.

After closing and relocking the door, Roxas led the men into to kitchen and motioned for them to take a seat at the table. Cid took the offer. The stranger, however, moved to stand in front of the kitchen sink.

Roxas pulled out the chair opposite of Cid, then clicked his tongue in annoyance. The chair was full of boxes and papers left over from moving in that he absolutely, totally intended to sort and put away. He picked up the mess and moved to place it in the unoccupied chair to the right, only to find that it _was_ occupied, and by a similar looking mess. As was the chair to the left. Sighing and placing the pile on the floor to deal with later, it occurred to him that this was the first time anyone else had sat at the table with him. In fact, it was the first time since he’d moved in that he’d had visitors at all.

Finally taking a seat, Roxas fixed Cid with a look. The older man didn’t make eye contact and instead gaze off into some point over Roxas’ shoulder. Cid scratched side of his neck, then sighed.

“Ok Rox, I’m gonna need you to be patient with me as I try to explain this,” Cid said. “You remember those stories I used to tell ya? About all the cool tech I helped build at my old job?”

Roxas nodded slightly, in a sort of dazed confusion.

“Right, well, on of the things they specialize in there is robotics. Now, I’m and engineer for vehicles and such; I never had much to do with that department. But I knew something about what they were makin’ in there. Things that would blow your mind. I told you about some of them, remember?”

“…yeah, but…” Roxas said, giving Cid a skeptical look, “I always figured you were bullshiting me.”

“To be fair, I did a lot of that, too. But not about this,” Cid said. He took a minute to look back and forth between Roxas and the stranger before finally settling on what to say next.

“Ok, there’s no easier way to put this,” Cid said. He jabbed a thumb in the stranger’s direction. “This guy? He ain’t human.”

Cid hazarded a glance at Roxas’ face, whose expression told him that he’d better start explaining, and fast.

“I know this is crazy, but here’s how it is,” Cid continued. “When I left, they were just rolling out their own brand of research to create extremely human-like robots. Ya know, androids. There wasn’t much to show for it last I saw, but this guy’s proof that they’ve come a long way. 

“Now, the reason he’s here now is because before I left, I signed up to be an emergency contact for company employees, in case something goes wrong with travel or tech. Or in this case, someone gets lost. They come find me, I take care of them”

Cid could feel Axel’s eyes on him. He’d get it later from everyone involved, that was certain, and as much as it pained him to do it, he’d have to lie by omission. If Roxas knew about how Axel had become “lost”, he’d refuse immediately, and Cid wouldn’t blame him for it. But then they’d lose their best chance at a safe space.

“This is where the favor comes in: I just need a safe place to keep him until I can get someone to come pick him up. Whaddya say, Rox?” 

A moment of silence began, the only sound coming from a wall clock steadily ticking away in the living room. If such a thing were possible, you would’ve heard the gears in Roxas’ head turning, then grinding to a halt before turning again as he attempted to process the present situation. 

Once the moment was over, Roxas chuckled quietly, in the certain way that indicates a person is about to lose their mind.

“Cid,” he said, leaning back in his chair with an unkind grin, “If you want me to quit, you should know there are much easier ways…”

“No! No, no, no, no. I’m serious, Rox,” Cid said. “Just look at him…Axel! Take that hood off!”

The stranger, Axel, did just that. After removing the hood, he pulled his hair out of his coat and shook his head to get it all back into place. He then fixed Roxas with a steady gaze, which Roxas returned.

Right, so…not human? He looked pretty human to Roxas. And humanoid robots weren’t unheard of in this day and age, but this guy was far too natural looking to be one of them. But the longer he looked at him, the more he began to have doubts. 

Maybe it was his eyes: brilliant green, far more green that any eyes Roxas had ever seen before. 

Maybe it was his hair: bright red and spiky. Certainly not an inconceivable combination with the help of today’s modern hair products, but something about the way it had fallen back into place around his head and shoulders suggested that it was meant to lay like that.

Maybe it was his features: high check bones, eyes slanted up just slightly and framed by long lashes. Nose, mouth, everything. Could a person be this beautiful by chance?

Or maybe it was the fact that, in all this time, Axel hadn’t blinked once. Hell, he hadn’t even taken a breath.

But that was stupid. Of course he was human. What else was there that he could be? But…what if he was actually and android? What if…? What..?

“What’s on your face?”

That got Axel to blink, surprised at Roxas’s question. He glanced around, looking for something to catch his reflection in. He found it in the widow above the kitchen sink and leaned close to examine his face.

Two streaks of purple marked his cheeks. Starting below each eye, they made irregular trails toward his chin, almost resembling tear tracks. Axel reached up and touched one of the marks gently.

“They’re coolant stains,” he said, still looking at his reflection. “My brother, uh…he injured himself before we got separated. I…um…I was trying to help patch it up. That must be what happened.”

“…wait,” Roxas said, squinting at Axel’s back. “You’re a robot, but you have a brother?”

“Android, Rox,” Cid corrected. 

“Technically no, he’s not my brother,” Axel said, turning away from the window to look at Roxas again. “But we were created together. We’re the same model, but different versions. It’s as close to having a brother as someone like me will get.”

Roxas nodded slowly. That makes sense. He’d always believed that family is what you make it. Then he buried his face in his hands and groaned. No. None of this made sense.

“Cid,” Roxas said, voice muffled as he spoke into his palms, “why me?”

“Well, it’s like this,” Cid began, then paused. He gave Axel a glance out of the corner of his eye, and Axel turned to give him a questioning look. Cid looked away and took a deep breath, digging through his lapel pockets in search of a cigarette.

“So…I told ya he’s an android, right?” Cid said. He found the cigarette and placed it behind his left ear. “But he’s not just a robot, he’s…dammit. This is probably secrets. I  
shouldn’t be tellin’ ya this…”

Roxas slowly raised his head to look at Cid through his fingers.

“But you’re going to anyway?”

“He’s learning, alright?” Cid said. “He’s high tech. There’s this thing they call the Heart Drive. Supposed to give androids like him emotions and feelings and, I dunno. It makes them human. He has one, and it’s online.

“Now from what I know of it, this sort of thing is only tested in a controlled environment. We don’t have that, so he needs somewhere safe and stable. Now, I know I haven’t seen much of ya recently, Rox, but you’ve always seemed to be an all around safe and stable kinda guy.”

Roxas took his hands down and laid them in his lap as he considered Cid’s words. Was he a stable person? Maybe. What that a compliment? Sounded like it. But something seemed off.

“Are things at your house so terrible that you can’t have him there?” he asked.

“The wife said no.”

“Right…” Roxas said, leaning back to stare at the ceiling. A lot was being asked of him. His brain struggled to comprehend all of it, due to tiredness and confusion, and he had more questions than he figured he’d get answers. He took a breath to ask one of those questions when Cid spoke again.

“I’ll give you this then,” he said, taking the cigarette from behind his ear and placing it in his mouth. “A raise.”

Raise? That got Roxas to sit up and look forward. His inner desperate college graduate was paying close attention.

“How much of a raise?”

“$3 on the hour.”

Roxas stared, mouth hanging slightly open. His skepticism and doubts were fighting a battle with his desire to eat something more that cheap fast food and ramen noodles, and both were equally matched. His right eye twitched every now and then. But before he could make a decision, he was pulled form his thoughts.

“Cid, I don’t want to be anymore trouble,” Axel said. “You’re asking a lot of him.”

Roxas looked at Axel and felt himself melt a bit. Maybe Cid was telling the truth; maybe this guy really did need help. Just like Roxas really needed the money. In his head, the warring stopped as both sides came to an agreement. 

“No…no. It’s fine.” Roxas said. He stared at the table and ran a hand through his hair. “It’s fine. He can stay.”

“Really? Ya haven’t seemed too keen on the idea,” Cid replied.

“Well…”Roxas shrugged, “To be honest, I’m mostly convinced that this is an elaborate prank. But at the same time, if its not, I don’t mind helping people out. And, you know…that”

“Yeah. Right. That.” Cid began searching his pockets for his lighter.

“So for how long will this be?” Roxas asked.

“Not too sure,” Cid said. He found his lighter. “I’m gonna make a phone call tomorrow. I’d guess ‘round about five days. If they’re like they were when I was there, they tend to move things on Sundays.”

“Anything else I should know?”

“No television.”

“What?! Why?”

“No television, and don’t go showin’ him things on the internet. That stuffs not real; don’t want him to start learnin’ the wrong things about being human.”

“Ugh….” Roxas whined. Suddenly, he thought of something. “What about work? I’m supposed to be in early tomorrow.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” Cid said. As much as he wanted to get Roxas in that office so he could be free of it and back in the garage, this was more important. And what were few more days, anyway? “Maybe the rest of the week, I dunno. You’ll get paid, so don’t worry.”

“I…”Roxas started, then gave a small laugh.

“Only thing though: if you need to leave, call me. I don’t want him to be alone.”

“…is there a reason for that, or…?” Roxas asked.

“Nah. Just trying to play this thing right. I don’t wanna get yelled at anymore than I have to.”

“Right, then. I can call you. But, uh...can you not?”

“Hm?”

Cid froze, just _this_ close to lighting his cigarette. His last smoke break was now 3 hours ago and it seemed his body was acting on its own to get its fix.

“Sorry, kid,” Cid apologized, closing the lighter and pulling the cancer stick from his mouth. “Stress.”

And awkward few seconds of silence passed

“Well, I guess that’s about everything,” Cid said as he quickly stood from the table, desperate to get outside to light up. He looked to Roxas. “Anything else I can do for ya?”

“I…don’t think so?”

“Then I guess I’ll be off…Wait!” Cid pointed a finger at Axel, before beckoning him to follow. “C’mere.”

He walked to the door, opened it, and stepped out, Axel right after him. 

“Um…” Roxas called out weakly behind them.

“It’ll take just a sec, Rox,” Cid called back.

 

“You lied to him,” Axel whispered as soon as the door closed. “If they find me here…”

“They won’t, trust me,” Cid whispered back. “I have a system for this in place already, ya just gotta trust me.”

“It’s dishonest.”

“Ya think he’d agree if he knew? This is still part of my job, Axel. I’m…I’m contractually bound to keep you safe.”

Axel looked away from him.

“It’s underhanded, I know. I don’t like it either,” Cid said. He winced as it started to rain, a fat drop of water landing on his head. “Can you hang in there for 5 days?”

“…I can,” Axel said. He looked back to Cid with a harsh gaze. “Do I need to keep lying?”

“Just…don’t tell him you were attacked and all. Tell him about yourself all you want. I’m already in deep shit for pulling him into this.”

Axel sighed, shoulders sagging in resignation. Thunder rumbled in the distance.

“…thank you, Cid.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Cid said, waving a hand in a dismissive gesture. He looked at the door and sighed, his expression going soft. “Ok, now the reason I called you out here. There are a few things I gotta tell you about Roxas, so listen up…”

Roxas sat alone in his kitchen in silence as he waited for the two to be finished with their conversation. His head began to droop down as sleep threatened to take him away. Suddenly, there was a loud thump at the door that startled him back to consciousness. He heard Cid laughing loudly as the door swung open. Axel stepped in, cheeks slightly pink.

“Are you ok?” Roxas asked.

“I…”Axel said, flushing a deeper shade. “The doors at the facility are automatic…”

Before Roxas could respond, Cid leaned over and shouted from behind Axel.

“Alright, he’s all yours, Rox. He’s programmed to take commands from ya, just be responsible about it. Don’t send him off to hurt himself; he won’t do it and it’ll probably just make him mad.”

“Oh, ok,” Roxas replied. “Is that something like the three laws?”

“The what now?”

“You know, the three laws of robotics? Like in the sci-fi movies…” Roxas only received blank stares from both of his guests. He shrugged. “Nevermind…”

Roxas stood and walked towards the door, Axel stepping to the side to let him pass. Once there, he put a hand on the knob and leaned against the door frame, looking at Cid.

“I still kind of think your bullshitting, but if you aren’t…this is all I need to know, right?” he asked. “Just a week and raise and everything’s fine, right? I’m not going to get, I don’t know, thrown in jail or worse because of this…right.?”

“Roxas, everything is alright,” Cid said as he put a comforting hand on Roxas’ shoulder. “I’m gonna take full responsibility for this, so if anyone’s in trouble, it’s me. Just…don’t go around telling people about this.”

“…ok.. I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this, but ok.” “Real” android or weird prank, it was easy money. He could do this.

“Right, well, you kids have a good night,” Cid said, giving Roxas’ shoulder one last shoulder pat and stepping back with a wave. “I’ll call you with any news.”

“Drive safe,” Roxas said, watching Cid walk to his truck. He slowly closed the door and relocked it. The realization of what had just transpired was slowly trickling into his brain. His tired, easily manipulated brain. He cursed himself silently. Did he really believe in androids? Is this really happening? He then realized something.

“You know,” Roxas said out loud, “he was lying.”

He was still facing the closed door, so he missed the way Axel tensed up behind him. 

“He said the wife says no,” Roxas said, turning to Axel. “He doesn’t have a wife.”

“Oh?” was all Axel said, relaxing slightly, shifting his feet.

“Yeah, so that’s really…” he said, looking down at the floor. He caught sight of Axel’s boots; boots that were caked in mud. Letting his gaze travel upwards, he saw that it wasn’t just the boots, but all of Axel was streaked with mud. He looked towards the kitchen, where, sure enough, a trail of muddy foot prints lead towards the door.

“I am so sorry,” Axel said as he noticed what had caught Roxas’ attention. “I had no idea.”

“It’s fine. We’ll deal with it,” Roxas said. “Just not now. But you’ll need to get those shoes and that coat off before you come into the rest of the house. Cleaning mud out of carpet is no fun.”

Axel nodded and set to work removing his boots. He set them on the rug in front of the door, his coat quickly following. It then became apparent that the clothes he wore underneath were in just as bad of shape. Mud was even in his hair.

“You’re a mess, Axel,” Roxas said, chuckling. 

“Ah…yeah,” Axel replied, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

“Come on. I think you could use a shower.”

Roxas led him through the house to the bathroom. After he got him set up with towels and a change of clothes, he left Axel to shower while he set to work finding a place for him to sleep. The only viable option was the couch, which was buried under boxes and random personal belongings just like the rest of the house. As he began clearing the space, he wondered if it really mattered. Assuming Axel was an android for real, does he even sleep? And if he does, will he need a place to lie down, or can he do that standing up? With nothing better to go on, Roxas decided that the best course of action was to treat him like he was just any other person.

He had just finished digging out a spare blanket from a box when Axel stepped out of the bathroom. Roxas looked at him and realized how goofy his borrowed clothes looked on him: shirt far too big for his thin frame, and sleep pants too short. Just another thing they’d have to deal with later.

“Hey there,” Roxas greeted, “all clean?”

“Yes. Thank you for letting me use your shower.”

“Don’t mention it,” Roxas said. He handed Axel the blanket. “Sorry, this is all I have. And the couch is the only good spot right now. Is that ok?

“Of course. I’ll go wherever you need me to.”

“That’s…um….oh! You need a pillow. I think I have a spare here…”

“It’s alright,” Axel said, moving to sit on the couch. “This is more than I could ask for.”

“Are you sure?” Axel nodded. “Well…ok then. Um…if you need anything else, I’ll be in my room. It’s down the hall, the room on the left. So uh…sleep well, ok?”

“Thank you. You sleep well too, Roxas.”

Roxas gave him one last short nod before turning and making his way down the hall to his room. He shut the door and, for a moment, debated locking it, but ultimately decided against it. He unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans, letting them fall to the floor before stepping out of them and searching for a pair of comfortable shorts to sleep in.

Crawling into bed, he pulled the covers up over his head and tried to will his mind blank. So much had happened, and there was so much for his brain to chew on and keep him up all night. Eventually it became too hot, so he sighed and poked his head back out of the covers, settling more comfortably back on his pillow. 

Outside, the rain started pouring down while thunder rolled steadily. Roxas concentrated on the sound, soothing and rhythmic, and after a few minutes found himself lulled to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to thank everyone for the comments and support I received on the first chapter. I really wasn't expecting so much love! It's really encouraging. 
> 
> Next chapter, the rating will go up. Not because of...things...but because things might/will happen in later chapters. Don't panic.


	3. Chapter 3

The sunshine streamed into the room, illuminating everything in a golden glow, A beautiful sight, especially after the seemingly unending rains during the past few days. The room’s single occupant didn’t seem to agree, however. Roxas groaned and pulled his pillow over his head, not ready to give up on sleep just yet.

Eventually he relented, and after throwing the pillow off his face, he sits up and scratches at the stubble that’d sprouted on his chin overnight. He looked at the clock: 8:30 a.m. Work started at 9:30. Time to get moving.

He got out of bed and stretched, twisting first to the left, then to the right, and winced as his back popped loudly. He then rolled his shoulders once, twice, three times before opening the door and walking into the hallway, headed toward the kitchen. 

As he walked, he frowned. Why did it seem that he wasn’t supposed to go to work today? He pondered this for a moment, stepping over boxes and random debris. This was definitely something he needed to work on this weekend; his house was so full of boxes that it was inevitable that he’d trip over one and break his neck.

Reaching the end of the hallway, he looked up away from the floor and found his gaze locked with a pair of green eyes.

He yelped in surprise and took a step back; the yelp turning into a yell as his heel caught the corner of a box and he went tumbling backwards. He flailed and clawed at the air in a panicked attempt to stop himself from falling before hitting this carpeted floor with a soft thud. Dazed, laying on his back, and looking up at the ceiling, he finally realized why he didn’t need to go to work today.

“Roxas!” came a cry from the living room. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine, just winded,” Roxas replied, sitting up. He laughed nervously, cheeks and ears flushing red in embarrassment. “That was dumb. I forgot you were here.”

“I scared you…”

“No, you didn’t…well, ok. You did. But it wasn’t your fault.”

Axel stood from his seat on the couch and walked to Roxas, offering a hand to help him up. Roxas took it and was hauled off the floor in a display of strength he never would have guessed a skinny guy like Axel would have.

“Whoa…wow!” he said in surprise.

“Hm?”

“N-nothing. Um, thanks.” Roxas smiled up at him awkwardly, shuffling past and into the kitchen. He busied himself with finding breakfast, pulling down a bowl and a box out of a top cabinet and placing them on the counter while stepping over the muddy boot prints on the floor from the previous night. It was as he was searching for milk, head buried in the refrigerator, that he could no longer take feeling of eyes boring holes into his back. Standing up, he glanced over his shoulder at his guest, who was still standing in the hallway. Staring.

“So., uh…” Roxas began. He turned fully to look at Axel. As he did, he caught sight of the garbage can sitting in the corner. On top was and empty milk carton. Dammit. “Did you sleep ok?”

“I slept well, yes”

“That’s good.” Roxas stepped back over to the bowl and box of cereal. Should he pour it into the bowl and eat it with a spoon like a civilized man, or should he just reach in there and eat it by the handful. To avoid looking like a total slob, he settled on the former, pouring the cereal, grabbing a spoon from the drawer, and sitting down at the table. 

“Did…did you sleep well?” Axel asked hesitantly, taking a step toward the kitchen.

“I did,” Roxas answered between mouthfuls of cereal. “I didn’t think I would, but I think listening to the rain helped me fall asleep.”

“Does it always rain like that here?” Another small step.

“Well, only this time of year, really. There’s usually at least a chance of rain every day between May and September. This year’s been weird though; it’s rained for almost a week solid.”

Axel made a small sound of acknowledgement while Roxas took another bite. Seconds pass. Eventually, Roxas sighed and gestured toward the chair in across from him.

“You can sit down, you know?”

“Oh…”

Axel finally walked the rest of the way into the kitchen. He has a weird way of walking, Roxas thinks as he watches him: movement stiff, arms and legs swinging a bit too wide as he takes his steps. He took the offered seat, sitting straight up, shoulders squared. Staring again, until he catches himself. He rubbed the back of his head and looked away.

“I’ve never seen the rain,” he said quietly. “Not until all of this.”

“…never?” Roxas asked around a mouthful of food. “How have you never seen rain before?”

“I’ve never seen it in person. I’ve seen videos, but…” Axel said, looking back to Roxas, “We were never allowed outside. I’ve never seen any of this before.” 

“That’s…why not?”

“They just don’t. I don’t know,” Axel said, looking back to Roxas. “They tell us what to do, and we don’t question them.”

“That’s cruel…” Roxas murmured. “That’s not right.”

Axel looked at him for a moment, expression blank, before tilting his head slightly and making a face of confusion. The movement struck Roxas as odd once again, as it did every time Axel made an expression. It always seemed to take a second for the emotion to register, as if it had to finish loading before being expressed. Almost like a…

“Roxas, you didn’t forget, did you?” Axel asked. Then, as if completing Roxas thoughts, “I’m not human. I’m an android. I do what I’m told. The labs are all I’ve known.”

“R-right. Sorry.” Roxas said, dropping his spoon into his now empty bowl with a soft clink. 

No. He didn’t forget. He’d just been trying to not believe it. He thought back to all of the books and movies he’d watched over the years, the ones about robots and science and other amazing, as-of-yet unreachable scientific feats. The fact that it was only science fiction had always bummed him out. There’d be no material replicators or interstellar travel in his lifetime. Yet here, possibly, was something he’d always dreamed about; something straight out of those books and movies he loved. So why was he fighting it so much?

_Because it’s most likely a stupid prank,_ his mind answered for him. _They’re just stories, Rox. Don’t get your hopes up…_

Roxas stood from the table, more abruptly than intended, chair squeaking across the cheap linoleum floor. He picked up his bowl and moved to put it in the sink, carefully stacking it on top of the tower of dirty dishes leftover from the past week.

“I’m going to take a shower,” he announced, walking around the table and into the hallway, opening the first door on his left. He emerged holding a pile of clean clothing and disappeared into the bathroom across the hall.

Turning on the lights and closing the door behind him, Roxas closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He could feel the sharp prickle of shame rising in the back of his mind.

Elaborate joke or not, he had run away. For a moment, he had allowed himself to believe that this whole situation was for real and had panicked. He had just left Axel out there at the kitchen table. Roxas squeezed his eyes shut. It’d been a long time since he’d felt like this much of a jerk

Resigning himself to the notion that things would be awkward later, he opened his eyes. His gaze was immediately drawn to the mess of clothing piled on the floor next to the tub. Axel’s muddy clothes. Well, at least he’d hung his towels up.

Placing his clean clothes on the rack next to the sink, he stripped, adding to the dirty pile of clothing on the floor. He turned on the shower, setting the water temperature to an almost uncomfortable heat. As he waited for it to warm, he attempted to will himself into a state of calm. Don’t think about it, don’t think about it…

That, of course, had the opposite effect. Once he’d finished lathering up and rinsing off, he stood under the spray, having a small crisis, until the water turned cold.

He pulled back the shower curtain and stepped out, grabbing a clean towel and wiping down the mirror before running it over his hair, then finally wrapped it around his waist. He gathered a few supplies from out of the cabinet behind the mirror and willed himself to focus. 

First, a shave: quick and easy. A little bit of shaving cream and a few swipes with a cheap, disposable razor, and he was finished. Sure, he could take his time and do it right, make sure there were no missed spots, but he found he didn’t care. His hair was so fair that no one noticed anyway, or at least no one ever complained.

Second was his hair. This took slightly more effort, but after years of styling it the same way, he practically moved on muscle memory alone. After procuring a dollop of mousse, he ran his hands through his hair a few times, first one way, then the other. With a finishing rake of fingers, he was done: his signature sideways cowlick, styled like it was almost every day since 10th grade. 

Third was teeth. A quick brush and a few seconds of gargling mouthwash and he was done. Sure, his dentist wouldn’t be happy, but for now it would do.

Clothing was next: underwear, khaki shorts, blue tank top. Nothing fancy here. He gave himself a once over in the mirror, checking that everything was in its proper place. Deeming himself presentable, he opened the bathroom door, finally ready to face up to his previous indiscretion.

He walked down the hallway into the main rooms and looked left into the kitchen where he figured Axel would still be sitting. He wasn’t. So he looked right into the living room. His guest was there, sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the large window facing into the back yard. The curtains that usually covered it had been tied back, allowing a shaft of light into the room. As the light filtered through Axel’s oddly styled red hair, the edges took on a glow, almost as if it were made of fire. Roxas took in the sight for a moment before moving to join him at the window to see what had caught his attention.

Several birds flitted about, some perching on low branches above the ground while others pecked at the dirt in search of breakfast. Further back, next to the property’s small storage shed, a squirrel went about its business until another of its kind chased it from its spot, sending it running through the underbrush of the surrounding woods. It was all routine and mundane. And yet…

“I guess,” Roxas said, “you’ve never seen any of this before either, huh?”

Axel quickly turned his head to look up at Roxas as if he hadn’t noticed his approach. A few seconds passed, then he shook his head and looked back to the yard.

“Not until I…got lost, no.”

“That must’ve been scary,” Roxas said as he sat down next to Axel. “Being lost in such an unfamiliar environment.”

“Well, it wasn’t all unfamiliar. I mean, I’ve seen pictures and videos of the things outside. I’d just never seen them in person.

“Like that,” Axel said, pointing, “that’s a chi…I mean, squirrel. And that…” he pointed again “….that’s a bird. I uh…I don’t know what kind.”

“That’s a cardinal, and it’s a male. See how he’s red? And they usually come in pairs,” Roxas said, searching the scene, squinting his eyes a bit. A similar bird hopped into view. “There! See that one? That’s a female.”

“They don’t look the same…”

“Sure they do. She’s just a different color, but they both have those tufts on their heads.”

“Oh. I had no idea,” Axel says, leaning closer to the window. He pointed at something to the right. “What’s that one?”

“That’s…that’s a robin.” Roxas answered. “There’s a bunch of those around.”

“Is it a male or female?”

“They all look the same, I think. Not all birds are different like that.”

“I see…” Axel said, sitting upright once more. He made a small sound, almost like a chuckle. “I guess it is all unfamiliar after all.”

“Well, that’s hardly your fault,” Roxas said, turning to look at Axel. “If they never let you out to see and experience the world, how could you know?”

“That’s true,” Axel responds. He looked at Roxas, meeting his gaze. “You know, the scientists weren’t the ones to tell me about these things. They were too busy programming us to into people. But there was another one like us, an android. He was allowed out. He’d come into the labs every now and then, and they’d let him see us. He always had some new story to tell, some new thing to show me and Saïx. I always looked forward to his visits.”

“Saïx?” 

“My brother. I didn’t tell you his name?” Roxas shook his head. “Oh. Well, some of them call us brothers. We don’t look a thing alike. They made him first, then me. Every new thing they do to us, they try it on him first.

“They started the Heart Drive on him a while back,” Axel continued. He dropped his gaze, examining his hands.. “It…wasn’t that great. It worked but…he needed to be fixed.”

“I’m sorry,” Roxas said quietly, unsure if there was really anything he could say in this situation.

“I…” Axel began, the trailed off. He made a pained face and placed a hand over his heart. His eyebrows furrowed, and he swallowed hard as if he was fighting whatever feeling it was that he was experiencing. Then, his expression shifted, eyes going wide with a sudden intake of breath.

“Roxas!” he called out, entirely too loud considering their close proximity to each other. He turned to Roxas, leaning toward him. “Do you believe me?”

“Um…?”

“Do you believe me? About being an android? Last night, you didn’t seem to believe it at all.”

“That’s…well…” Roxas hesitated, looking away from Axel’s sharp gaze. “It’s kind of complicated. I mean, oh man…”

“Can I prove it to you?” Axel asked, dropping his hand from his chest.

“I…I don’t know. Can you?”

Not giving an answer, Axel reached out for one of Roxas’ hands. Roxas pulled away, leaning back to avoid the touch.

“What are you doing?” he asked, preparing to scoot away further.

“I don’t have a heart. Here, feel,” Axel said. Not giving Roxas time to pull away again, he snatched his left hand and placed it over his chest, resting his own hand on top to hold it there.

Roxas was so very close to letting Axel know exactly how he felt about being forced to touch him, but the curses died on his lips before they could be spoken. Underneath his palm and through the borrowed shirt, as promised, was no heartbeat. Instead, a soft whir filled Axel’s chest, punctuated by what feel like a small click every few seconds. Axel’s hand, while not cold, wasn’t warm either, not the way a human’s should be. The place on his chest where his hand was being held was warming, though, as if his own body heat was being reflected back to him.

Roxas looked up into Axle’s eyes. 

Axel wasn’t breathing.

Axel wasn’t moving.

Axel wasn’t _alive_. And yet, he was.

Roxas felt dizzy.

A sudden knock on the door startled him out of the moment. He and Axel shared a look before he pulled his hand back and stood. He made his way to the door in the kitchen, unlocking and opening it to reveal a tired looking Cid.

“Hey, Rox,” he greeted with a small wave. “I’ve got some news.”

“Alright. Come in,” Roxas said, standing aside to let him pass. Once inside, Cid took a breath as if to speak before getting distracted by the mess of the room that he’d somehow missed the night before. With hands on his hips and an unimpressed look on his face, he slowly turned in place, taking in the sight of it all. Eventually he turned to face the living room where Axel was still seated on the floor.

“Axel,” he greeted, giving him a wave as well “Y’alright?”

“I’m good,” was the reply. Axel stood and walked over to join the two men. “What’s the news?”

“The news is…that what I said last night was right,” Cid said as he flopped into a chair at the table. “Truth be told, I can’t believe I remembered most of that stuff; it’s been years, after all.”

“You were right,” Roxas nodded. “About….what now?”

“The procedures and all. No t.v., no talkin’ about it with other people, no leavin’ him alone. All that. Also, they’ll be by for him about….” Cid sniffed a bit and leaned back to take a look at the calendar on the wall. “So…today’s Wednesday? They’ll be ‘round to get him on Sunday; about 5 days, like I said.”

“So, I guess that means I have the rest of the week off then?”

“You do,” Cid affirmed. He leaned forward again, resting his elbows on the table in front of him. “Also, the company wants you to know they apologize for the great inconvenience that’s been placed on you. I’m also into more trouble than I thought.”

“What are they going to do to you?” Axel asked.

“Not much they can do, I imagine. Not if they want to keep things on the down low. ‘Sides, it’s not the first time I’ve been on their shit list,” Cid replied, fixing Axel with a grin. The grin fell when he noticed the something-like-a-worried-look on the androids face. “What’d ya think would happen?”

“I don’t know,” Axel said. “They always threatened me and Saïx with deactivation when they were upset with us.”

Cid laughed at that, the sound somewhere between amusement and nervousness.

“I don’t think it’s quite that serious yet, Axel,” Cid said before turning to face Roxas. “Anyway, I guess…you ok, kid? You look spooked.”

“What? Uh…” Roxas shuffled awkwardly. He’d entered the conversation feeling like an outsider, and this talk of ‘deactivation’ and ‘not that serious yet’ was a bit concerning. “I guess…I’m just tired? And to be honest, things have been weird these past 12 hours.”

“Yeah, I bet. Tell ya what,” Cid said as he stood. He pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and dug out a few bills which he handed to Roxas. “Consider this an advance on your raise. Take that, go run some errands. Be gone for awhile.”

“Thank you, but…” Roxas said, counting the money in his hand. “I don’t want to be committing tax fraud on top of all this.”

“What? No, that’s…ok. A gift, then; a thanks for helping an old man out.”

“Alright then,” Roxas said as he folded the bills and put them in his pocket. “I guess I can have things to do. Is there a time I need to be back so you can leave?”

“Nah…I opened the shop and left one of the boys in charge. They’ll manage.”

“Right. No. Ew…is it…?”  
“Yes, I know,” Cid said, waving a hand in dismissal, “but he’s a good manager. Now will you get goin’ already?”

Roxas walked out of the kitchen with a dismissive gesture of his own, heading to his room to gather shoes and socks. On the way back through the hall, he stopped in the bathroom. Opening the cabinet, he pulled out a small case of earring studs. One particular manager had made fun of his earrings so much the first few days of work that Roxas had given up on wearing them during the week altogether.

But Roxas wasn’t at work today. 

Choosing three studs, he placed them in his ears: two black on the right, on white on the left. Another left-over from his high school days, but it was something that he found comforting, so it was a continued habit.

He paused to put his socks and shoes on before walking back out into the kitchen. Once there, he began opening cabinets and drawers, taking stock of food he had and food he’d need. Milk was one staple on the list, quickly followed by everything else. He vowed that one day he’d get the hang of this adult thing . He hoped.

He stopped at the table near the door and gathered his wallet, keys, and cell phone, pausing for a moment to make sure that he wasn’t forgetting anything else that he may need to get while he was out. Deciding that all was accounted for, he called out before he left.

“Ok. I guess I’ll be back later then.”

“Have fun,” Cid said from his seat at the table. He had his cell phone out and reading glasses on, playing some game.

“Right...” Roxas stepped forward to get a view of the living room where Axel was seated in front of the window again. “Axel, I’ll see you later, ok?”

“Oh…ok,” Axel replied, turning to look at him. “Goodbye.”

Roxas gave him a wave and a small smile before walking to the door and going outside. 

It was hot, as predicted. Fat, fluffy clouds rolled by overhead. While they didn’t threaten rain at present, there was almost no doubt that an early evening storm would happen again, just like it’d happened every day for the past week. 

His footsteps crunched on the gravel driveway as he made his way to his car: a beat up, beige mid-size that was old when he was given it on his 16th birthday. It was another thing he had to thank Cid for; not only finding the thing and letting the family buy it, but for keeping it running all these years.

As he opened the door and climbed in, he couldn’t help but notice that fabric on the headliner was sagging again, and that the faux leather covering the steering wheel was beginning to peel away. But it had good air conditioning, and he was forever grateful for that as he started the car and set the thermostat as cold as it would go. He took the car out of park and slowly moved down the driveway, avoiding Cid’s truck along the way, before turning onto the paved road and heading toward town.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **So, I split this chapter into two. It was way too big. It only took me a month to decide to do this, sorry.**
> 
>  
> 
> *Note: 12 hours later I edited this. nothing big, just NPC probelms*


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is what was the second part of Chapter 3. I split it into tow chapters for biggness reasons. sorry about any confusion. More notes at the end.

It was as Roxas stood in front of the dairy cooler inside the small, local grocery store that the absolute strangeness of what was happening at his house hit him. Here in this place with people going about their everyday business, he could almost believe that he had hallucinated the whole thing. He put his hand in his pocket and felt for the money Cid had given him, its existence proof that, once again, it was all real.

He had been so preoccupied with his thoughts that it took an old woman saying “excuse me” three times before he apologized and stepped out of her way. She opened the case and grabbed a gallon of milk, giving a Roxas a look that suggested she’d thought he’d ignored her on purpose.

 _What would she think if she knew_ , Roxas wondered, _that I have an extremely life-like android living in my house?_

Moving to grab his own carton of milk, he looked further down the aisle to an old man who was slowly picking up and examining yogurt cups before placing each one on a shelf lower than he’d picked it up on. What would he say?

_He’d yell at me for being young, probably._

He put the milk carton in his shopping cart and took a look at the food he’d gotten so far: boxes of macaroni and cheese, several cans of soup, frozen dinners, cans of soda, and absolutely nothing fresh. But none of that was ramen, so he counted it as a small victory.

Making his way to the front of the store to check out, he turned down the first empty aisle he came across. The smell of dry dog food assaulted his nose, followed by the odor of cat food. He picked up his pace to get away from the offending smells but slowed when a brightly colored sale sign caught his eye. There, on the bottom shelf, was a small bag of wild bird seed. He thought for a second before walking away, then changed his mind and went back, picking up the bag and putting it in his cart. 

Bird watching was fun, right? Especially when you were banned from television for a week.

Especially when you’ve never seen birds before. 

Checking out took longer than he would have liked. The old lady in front of him was arguing with the clerk over every coupon she tried to use. Wednesdays were senior days at this grocery store, and a 10% discount was quite the deal. He’d have to remember that in the future.

With groceries loaded into the cart and shopping cart taken back to the front of the store, Roxas left his car in the store parking lot to walk across the street to the post office. 

At some point before he moved into his house, he’d set up a post office box since he was in between homes and didn’t know where he’d end up living. The only downside to this was that he had to remember to drive into town to pick up his mail. That’s why this time he snagged and extra bag from the store to put all of his mail in. It proved to be a good idea; the mail filled nearly half the bag. Most of it was junk, some of it was bills. One was a card sent from a distant relative, probably congratulating him on his recent college graduation. At least someone remembered him.

With mail bagged up, he exited the post office and stopped at the side of the sidewalk to wait for traffic to clear so he could cross the street. As he looked to the right to check for cars, he noticed a sign in front of the store next to the post office. He couldn’t remember a store being there before. In fact, he remembered the building being empty when he’d come into town looking for a place to stay. 

He considered his groceries for a second; milk and frozen foods presently waiting for him in the trunk of his car. For that reason alone the trip to the post office was meant to be a short one. But he was also curious as to what this new shop was. So, vowing to only check in for a quick look, Roxas walked to the door and stepped inside.

It was a flower shop. Color popped out at him from almost every direction; pinks and oranges and red and yellows. Daisies, carnations, lilies, and roses filled the space, all arranged into beautiful bouquets. Ribbons and knickknacks and intricately patterned vases filled the spaces in between. It was almost overwhelming. 

“Hello!” called a woman at the counter in the back of the store. “Is there anything I can help you find?”

“Ah...no. Not really,” Roxas said, stepping carefully around a table with an impressive chrysanthemum arrangement. “I was just wondering what this store was. I don’t think I remembered it being here before…”

“Nope! We just opened this week,” she said, coming out from behind the counter. She wore a green-stained apron over her long pink dress, and when she extended a hand to Roxas for a handshake, he noticed that her fingers were pruny, as if she’d been working with water. “I’m Aerith. I own the place.”

“I’m Roxas. Nice to meet you,” he said, accepting the hand shake. Then, suddenly, he remembered. “Uh…sorry, I have to go. I left my groceries in the car.”

“Oh no, you’re leaving?” she said, squeezing his hand slightly. Her green eyes were kind and her smile was mischievous. “But you’re the first customer of the day. It’s bad luck if you leave without buying something.”

“I…well…” Roxas stammered, looking around. What could he even afford? Everything was so beautiful, and even though no prices could be seen, he could imagine how expensive they were. Aerith noticed his hesitation. 

“Ok. How about this?” She released his hand and walked back behind the counter and pushed past the double doors that lead into another room. She reappeared seconds later with a small bouquet. Roxas couldn’t recognize any of the flowers, but they were pink and orange. It was pretty.

“This is a test bouquet from last week,” she explained. “They probably won’t make it much longer, so I’ll give you a discount. How does $4 sound?”

“…alright. Why not?” Roxas said. He pulled out his wallet and traded a few bills for the bouquet. He examined it for a second before taking an experimental sniff. They didn’t smell like anything. Then he had a thought, and his shoulders slumped in disappointment. “I don’t have anything to put these in.”

Aerith smiled as she ducked behind the counter. Roxas heard the sound of rummaging before she stood back up, holding a plain glass vase.

“$3. A special price just for you!”

Roxas chuckled and paid again. He felt like the biggest sucker in the world, but somehow he couldn’t bring himself to care.

“Thanks, Roxas! You saved me from bad luck today!” Aerith beamed at him, and Roxas blushed just a bit. 

They said their goodbyes and Roxas hurried to his car, carefully balancing the flowers, vase, and bag of mail. Somehow, he felt a bit lighter, as if the haze from the stress, not just from the past day but from the past weeks, was beginning to lift.

\---

Roxas returned home to find everyone exactly where he’d left them. He somehow managed to bring everything into the house in one trip, dumping the bag of bird seed at the door and placing the rest on the kitchen counter. After putting the carton of milk in the refrigerator, he worked quickly to set up the flower vase, filling it with water before adding the flowers, then placed it in the center of the kitchen table. Cid raised his eyes from his phone to take a look.

“That’s real cute, Rox,” he said. “What’s the occasion?”

“Well, there’s a new shop next to the post office. I went inside to see what it was and…”

“Right,” Cid nodded, “Aerith found another sucker.”

“…yeah. Yeah she did.”

As Roxas busied himself with putting away his groceries, Axel walked into the kitchen. He looked at the flowers for a moment before taking the empty chair at the table, leaning close to them. He reached out a hand to touch one, but thought better of if.

“What are these?” he asked.

“They’re flowers,” Roxas answered, stacking his frozen dinners in the freezer. “I don’t know what kind though.”

“They’re pretty…” Axel said, reaching up again to touch one before hesitating.

“Oh come on, Axel,” Cid said, pushing the vase toward him. “They ain’t gonna bite.”

“I know that…” Axel murmured as he gently touched a petal on an orange flower. He then caught the petal between thumb and forefinger, rubbing back and forth, feeling how soft it was. Cid watched him with a look of mild confusion. 

“So, I take it you’ve never seen flowers?”

“Not in person, no,” he replied as he moved onto a pink flower, doing the same with each of its petals. Roxas looked at him with a frown.

“What are they even trying to teach you over there?”

“Those eggheads!” Cid said, standing from the table. “They can tell ya all about the theory, but know nothin’ about the practice.”

“I don’t know,” Axel said softly. “Maybe they wanted to get the basics first. Maybe they were going to get to this part later.”

“Well….maybe,” Cid turned to Roxas and squinted at him. “You were back pretty quick, and it’s only 1 o’clock. That all you wanted to do?”

“To be fair, Cid,” Roxas replied, putting the last of the soup cans into a cabinet, “There’s not much to do around here.”

“That’s the truth alright. Well, I guess I’ll be off then; got things to finish up at the shop. You be sure to call me if you need me, ya hear?”

“I will.”

A silence filled the room once Cid left, Axel too absorbed in examining the flowers to offer much in the way of conversation. Roxas went the door to pick up the bag of bird seed and carried it outside, taking it around the house to the backyard. Tearing a small hole in the plastic, he poured some into his hand before flinging it across the yard. He did this several times until he felt like that should be enough to attract at least a few more birds. 

Movement caught his eye, and he looked to the window to see Axel watching him. He took the bag and walked back into the house again.

“It’s bird seed,” he explained once inside again, setting the bag down and toeing off his shoes. “It should attract more birds. And squirrels, too, I guess.”

“…did you do that for me?”

“Well, for me, too. Birds are nice.”

So they spent the day watching birds and talking about flowers. Eventually the evening rains began falling, and the conversation turned to weather and food as Roxas made dinner. 

The evening was finished with the cleaning and chores that Roxas could no longer ignore. He tended to the over large pile of dishes while Axel watched before gathering the laundry to be washed. Axel insisted on mopping the floors himself as he was the one to make the mess in the first place. It was a slow process, but with patience, Roxas was able to guide him through it.

Lastly, they both set to work scrubbing the mud from Axel’s boots, and after a quick clean up, they were finished. 

Before settling in for bed, Axel changed back into his now clean clothes. As they said their goodnights, Roxas couldn’t help but notice that the clothes looked much better on him than the borrowed ones.

\---

The second day was busy, yet uneventful. Mid morning had found Roxas mowing the lawn while Axel observed from the window. Once that was finished, he moved onto the flower gardens surrounding the house. He managed to convince Axel to join him outside for this, and he watched as Roxas struggled to pull up grass and weeds from the dirt.

By noon, it was too hot to stay outside working, so the two headed in where Roxas poured a glass of water from the tap.

“Can I have some water?” Axel asked from his seat at the table.

“Sure,” Roxas replied, opening a cabinet to grab a second glass. Then he paused. “Wait a minute…you can drink?”

“I have to,” Axel answered. “It helps to cool my processors. Also, my eyes and mouth need moisture, too.”

“Hah…I never would have guessed,” Roxas said. He pulled the glass from the cabinet and filled it with water, then handed it to Axel. “Can you eat, too?”

“Yes.”

“Cool…wait. What happens when you do? Noooo…don’t tell me…”

Axel gave Roxas a glance over the rim of his glass as he took a drink. Swallowing, he pulled the glass away from him and examined it before setting it on the table.

“It tastes different than water I’ve had before.”

“Yeah, all water will taste different, depending on where it’s from,” Roxas said as he walked to the table near the door, picking up his phone before taking the chair opposite of Axel. He moved the vase of flowers to the side so they didn’t have to look around it. 

Axel picked the up the glass again, watching the small particles float around in the water. When the particles began to settle, he gave the glass a swirl, watching them rise up before gently falling back down to the bottom.

“It’s not really tasting,” he said after a minute, “more like detecting. At least that’s what Saïx told me. He couldn’t explain the difference very well.”

“Oh?” Roxas said, looking up from his phone.

“The Heart Drive…it’s not just about emotion. It’s all senses. So, eventually I’ll be able to taste and smell and see and feel just like any human. At least that’s the theory.” Axel set the glass down on the table again, pushing it way from him. Reaching up, pulled a flower out of the vase, brining it close to his face to examine. 

“They did that with Saïx, and it worked. Too well, they said,” Axel continued. “He was fine before; we both were. But he started getting angry and restless. They blamed the process, said that something had been programmed wrong. But...we live in that bland, sterile lab. I think he just…”

Axel didn’t complete the thought. He placed the flower back into the vase before closing his eyes for a moment.

Roxas was at a loss for words, but his mind was buzzing with worried thoughts. In another day, he’d be sending Axel back to that place. What, exactly, would he be sending him back to?

“So,” Axel said, breaking the silence. He opened his eyes and looked across to Roxas’ phone. “What are you doing?”

“I’m…” Roxas said. What _was_ he doing? The serious turn in conversation had distracted him. Looking at his phone, he was greeted with pictures of shrubs and ads for home improvement stores. “Oh! The flower beds are a mess. I was looking up what to do with them. I’m, eh…not exactly the best with this kind of stuff.”

And so the conversation moved onto better things as they talked of mulch and crab grass and ground cover and flower pots. Anything to distract from the thought of Axel going back to a place where nothing grows.

\---

On the third day, the living room is filled with the sounds of boxes being opened and items being sorted. Or at least it was until about 2 p.m. when Roxas happened upon several boxes filled with things from middle school.

At the moment, Roxas was sitting on the floor, desperately attempting to stifle a laugh triggered by the photo he’d just uncovered. He failed, though, doubling over as his light chuckle turned into a full blown cackle. He took several deep breaths to calm himself, wiping the tears that had formed at the corners of his eyes.

Axel watched in baffled silence from the couch, completely lost as to what could be so funny. Still, he could feel the corners of his mouth turn up, and he let out a breath in a manner that could be called a giggle.

He’d heard before that laughter was contagious. He’d never known for sure until now.

Roxas righted himself and took another look at the photo before turning to say something to Axel. He paused for a moment, squinting at the others face.

”Are you…smiling?”

“I think so,” Axel replied, letting his expression fall back to neutral. “Was it bad? I’ve never smiled before.”

“Well, maybe it takes practice,” Roxas said. He held the photo out to Axel. “Now this smile? There was no helping that.”

Axel took the photo. A young Roxas smiled back, large teeth lined with braces dominating his face. Instead of the familiar spikes, his hair was parted down the middle and trimmed on the sides: a classic bowl cut. Axel couldn’t decide how terrible this actually was, having never been exposed to neither fashion nor middle school boys.

What struck him, however, was the fact that this younger, smaller person in the photo was the same one sitting on the floor in front of him. The scientists had explained the process of growing and aging, had given him books and showed him videos, but it never made sense to him. In a way, it didn’t seem possible. After all, the only people he’d ever actually seen were already grown.

He held the photo up, looking between it and Roxas. Another shadow of emotion stirred in his chest.

He was envious.

“Well…they fixed your teeth, anyway,” he said, handing the photo back.

“Yeah. I had to wear braces for 4 years,” Roxas said, placing the photo back into the box. “And a retainer for a year after. God, I kept losing that thing. I was in trouble, like, once a week.”

He closed the box and grabbed the marker that was next to him on the floor, uncapping it and writing something on the side before pushing it over to the others he’d opened and sorted.

Pulling another box toward him, Roxas opened it, then stilled. He gently picked up the first thing sitting on top: another photo, this one in a frame. He stared at it for a few seconds before swallowing hard and clearing his throat. He placed the frame back and closed the box, quickly writing something on the top. He then stood, taking the box down the hall and into another room.

He was upset, that much Axel could tell, but as much as he wanted to ask about it, he knew it would be in bad taste. So, when Roxas appeared again, chattering on about how his personal middle school bully managed to toss his retainer onto the school roof, Axel listened and made comments as appropriate, doing his best to help Roxas distract himself. 

 

At some point that night, Roxas stumbled out of his room toward the bathroom. Even though he’d left Axel to sleep in the dark living room, light now filled the room and cascaded down the hallway. He peered around the corned to see what his guest was up to.

Standing in front of the window, Axel held up a magazine that Roxas had thrown out earlier. He had it open to a page: an advertisement featuring a smiling woman. Axel looked back and forth between the magazine and his reflection in the window as his face contorted in all kinds of ways: eyes squinting, teeth barred, and every configuration in between.

He was practicing.

\---

“What are the three laws?” Axel asked on the fourth day, sprawled out on his back on the floor in front of the window.

“Hm?”

“The three laws…you said something about them my first night here.”

“Oh. Did I? Well…” Roxas began, placing a bookmark in the book he’d been reading and sitting up from lying on the couch. “It’s kind of like…ok. So, science fiction? There was this author, I mean, he was a scientist too, but…”

He glanced at Axel and was met with a blank stare. 

“Uh…in the books he wrote about robots and artificial intelligence, he came up with the three laws of robotics. They’re supposed to prevent something like a robot uprising. I think it goes…” Roxas began counting off on his fingers, “the first law is to do no harm to humans, the second is to obey them, and the third is to protect themselves from harm. I think they added another, but I don’t remember about it.”

“I see…” Axel said. He looked up at the ceiling and heaved a sigh, a sort of tense silence filling the room.

“Did they work?” he asked after a moment.

“Did what work?”

“The laws. Did they prevent an uprising? ”

“What? No...no no no. That wasn’t...that wasn’t real. It’s just sci-fi. We don’t have…” Roxas trailed off. 

Robots, of course, are what the world doesn’t have. Except for the one sitting in front of him. And his brother. And the other one that gets to go outside. And any others that came before them. Roxas laughed: a small, nervous sound. This whole situation was still so unreal.

“Look, Axel, I’m sorry –“

“Don’t. Don’t keep apologizing.” Axel said, sitting up. “I know what I am. It doesn’t bother me. But to tell you the truth, it’s kind of hard to believe that I’m…I don’t even know the right word. A rarity? A novelty? I knew that I, we, me and Saïx, were new versions of something. I didn’t know that we were some of the only ones of our kind.”

He stood and walked to the couch, sitting on the far side away from Roxas.

“It’s interesting though,” he continued. “They never bothered to tell us that we were the only ones. So…I guess I understand now why you’ve been so reluctant to believe that I’m what I am.”

“…I guess we’ve both learned a lot this week, huh?” Roxas said, toying with the corner of the cover on his book.

“We have.”

Axel smirked, cutting off the expression before it became a full smile, lest he creep Roxas out again. He reached out and snagged the book from Roxas’ grasp, turning it over to read the back.

“So, what’s this?”

“That’s uh…a book about…things they’re not going to want you to know about.”

“That’s for sure,” Axel said. “What’s a wizard?”

“It’s a man that can use magic.”

“What’s magic?”

“I honestly don’t know how to explain. It’s not real though.”

“Are you sure about that?” Axel asked, leaning forward with a sly look. “I seem to know of something else you don’t think is real…”

“Trust me on this one,” Roxas said. He reached out and took the book back. “If magic were real, life would be a lot easier.”

“Alright. If you say so,” Axel said, leaning back into the corner of the couch and relaxing. He raised a finger to his cheek and traced one of the coolant stains.

“They don’t call them the three laws,” he said softly. “But that’s what they are. I guess you’ve all been reading the same books.”

 

Later that night, Cid called. A company representative would be by at 5 a.m. to get Axel. 

The house was quiet after getting the news. 

For all of his reluctance and unbelieving, Roxas reflected on the past days and found that he’d enjoyed Axel’s company. 

For all of his concern for Saïx and his inability to navigate this outside world, Axel found that he didn’t want to leave.

Roxas eventually turned in for the night. He headed to bed early despite not being the least bit tired, hoping that when 5 a.m. came, he could give Axel a proper farewell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, that took awhile. Real life and rewrites...oh man.
> 
> Next chapter we start getting into some good sci-fi plot, so stay tuned!
> 
> I'd also like to thank everyone for their continued support. Kudos and comments mean a lot to me. Don't hesistate to give me feedback! It will help me grow as a writer.


	5. Chapter 5

The man with the eye patch stood by the doorway, tensing as the shirtless figure strapped to one of the tables pulled at his restraints and gnashed his teeth, growling. Another man in a white lab coat stood near the table, seemingly unbothered by the threat display merely inches away, He entered something into the tablet in his hand and then re-checked the connection: a long cord that plugged into the neck of the man on the table.

Satisfied, he jabbed a button on the device, cleared his throat, and gave a command.

“Calm yourself.”

The man on the table relaxed, laying back and going quiet. The look of unbridled anger that had filled his eyes gave way to fear. His harsh breaths contrasted sharply with the electric whine of the computer terminals that took up considerable space along the walls in the sterile, white room. 

Within seconds, he was lost again, rage building until he jerked the restraints on his right arm hard enough to send several rivets flying off into the room.

The man with the eye patch readjusted his grip on the weapon he held: his favorite electromagnetic disrupter rifle, specially made for problematic synthetics. He was ready to take the shot if he needed to.

The man in the coat clicked his tongue in annoyance. He began entering things into the device again, making adjustments and looking for errors before going through the process once more, and again, and again, until finally…

“Calm yourself, Saïx.”

Saïx slumped back onto the table, limbs going slack, panting harshly, all the fight leaving him. The man in the coat looked down at him with a pleased expression before turning to the man with the eye patch.

“Calm yourself, Xigbar.”

“Sir…” Xigbar murmured as he relaxed, releasing the tension in his shoulders and back. He lowered his weapon, but maintained a good grip on it, just in case.

The man in the coat turned back to Saïx, reaching over to brush the hair that was matted to his forehead by sweat. He then traced the shape of the X-shaped mark he’d personally made, following the stains from the leaked coolant around Saïx’s nose and down to his chin.

“Almost perfect.”

“N-no…” Saïx rasped in between breaths. “I’m not. I’m out of –“

“Control?” Yes, that’s true. But look at you,” the man replied, giving him a look that could almost be called adoring. “Look how amazing you are. And imagine, Saïx, how much more so you could be with my guidance.

“They told you that you were broken, yes? They were sending you for repairs. They feared you: their own creation. They blamed you for their own incompetence. Yet we both know the truth—“

“I _am_ broken!” 

“You want to have control,” the man spoke, ignoring him, “It’s all any of us want, control over ourselves, out futures. They withheld that from you, Saïx. They withheld one of mans basic rights from you.

“I can give you control,” he continued, leaning down close to Saïx’s face, words turning to near-loving whispers, “I can help you become…whatever you want. Whatever you choose to be. All you need to do is to stop fighting yourself.”

“I don’t want your help!” Saïx spat, straining upward against the restraints.

“We’ll try it out for a bit, hm?” the man said, standing up. He took his tablet, swiping through various screens. “Just a little experiment; just to see how it feels. You might even end up liking it.”

Saïx began to panic, began to fight once more. The man reached over to his neck, pressed a few buttons on the side, and gave a command.

“Low power, if you please.”

With that, Saïx’s struggling stopped. He lay back fully, turning his head toward the ceiling. His harsh breathing ceased entirely while his eyes closed.

“Good boy.”

“Sir, if I may,” Xigbar began, receiving a glare. He continued anyway, gesturing emphatically. “I mean, he’s great and all, but…like, if he wants to hurt you, I don’t know if I can stop him.”

“Xigbar, do you doubt my abilities?”

“Well, no, but even you said –“

“I know what I said,” the man replied coolly, “and for your sake, you’d…hm?”

A sound, almost too quite to hear. The man turned to Saïx and smirked, leaning down once more.

“What do you want?” Saïx said, words barely even a whisper. 

“How strong…you shouldn’t be able to speak,” the man said, righting himself.

“What do I want? You’ll know, in time. First, we need to be sure we can work together, that we can trust one another. I’m sure you understand.” He fiddled with the device again, scrolling through menus, looking for just the right application. 

“As for you, Saïx, one would have thought it was control you desired. To no longer be feared as unpredictable. However, you’ve made it clear that isn’t what interests you. So tell me,” he said, eyes fixed on the device, adjusting the connected cable once more, “what is it that _you_ want?”

The screen of the device came to life. Broken, pixilated images flashed in a flurry of movement. Eventually, things more concrete and readable presented. 

A word.

A name. 

A very specific shade of red.

“I see…” the man said with a voice that could be confused for comforting. He reached over and stroked Saïx’s arm, dark skin providing a sharp contrast to Saïx fair tone. “Don’t worry. You’ll be with your brother again soon. You have my word.”

The screen of the device filled with confusing patterns and flashing colors before the man closed the window. A few more deft presses and Saïx body lit up, lines of light marking his skin, interconnecting into intricate circuits and diverging off to at specific points to end in circular terminations. More buttons were pressed and seams appeared on his chest, skin pulling apart slightly below his collarbones and below his navel and around the sides. Finally, the lines that had lit up on his chest blinked out.

The man in the coat reached into his pockets, taking out a pair of gloves and quickly put them on. After removing the restrains on Saïx’s chest, the man put his hands on either side, digging his fingers into the exposed seams and lifting up. The chest plate detached, exposing the androids core. The man turned to place the plate on a table behind him before taking off is gloves and laying them next to it.

From his post at the door, Xigbar couldn’t see much. He looked up in surprise as he heard the air conditioning kick on, shivering as cold air flooded the small room. Seconds later, he realized why: the heat from the androids exposed innards were giving off an almost oppressive heat. He watched as the man in the coat stood back, waiting for the heat to dissipate before stepping closer to investigate. Xigbar pressed his back to the cool, metal door and wiped the sweat from his brow. 

Finally, the air around the android cooled, and the man in the coat moved closer to inspect what he’d uncovered. 

Purple fluid flowed through clear coolant tubes as a pump clicked and pulsed, sending it from the core, out to the body, and back again. Lights flickered and flashed in time with processes being carried out. Delicate circuitry, synthetic sinew, and various tubes filled the spaces in between. 

It was all standard and mundane as far as robotics were concerned, and the man wasn’t interested in the slightest. Instead, his gaze was drawn to something far more intriguing.

The Heart.

Sitting approximately where a human heart would, the device was encased in a tempered glass shell, filled with the same coolant that flowed through his synthetic veins. It emitted a mechanical hum as a faint glow emanated from its core in a steady beat, reminiscent of an organic heart.

The man stared, transfixed, reaching out to touch before thinking better of it. He turned to his tablet, disconnected the cable and, leaving it the other end connected to Saïx, plugged it into a console nearest to the table. Raking his hair away from his face, he dug through the pockets in his coat, producing a small band.

“Xigbar,” he spoke, tying his silver hair back, “leave me.”

Xigbar was close to protesting once more. The android had already spoken when he shouldn’t have, how much of a chance was there of him breaking out of his trace altogether and strangling his superior?

The man fixed Xigbar with an impatient look. It was an unspoken threat, and Xigbar had already pissed him off once today. Best not to risk it.

“Yes, sir.” 

He walked to the door and entered a code on the keypad, stepping through as it slid open. Once in the hallway, he turned his head to the right, following the sound of voices. Two others stood some yards away, whispering to each other and eyeing Xigbar as if they’d just been caught doing something they shouldn’t be.

“What are you two doing?” he called out to them. “Don’t you have assignments to finish or something?”

“Maybe,” one called back with a hint of attitude, “m-maybe not.”

“What does he intend to do with the android?” asked the other.

“Hell if I know,” Xigbar replied. He held his weapon up, flipping switches and pressing buttons, powering the device down. “And you’d probably know better than me by now, anyway.”

“Well, I know he doesn’t tell me anything,” said the first, laughing. “A-almost like he doesn’t trust me or s-something.”

“Because he has a good reason not too,” quipped the second. The first gave him a look of mock insult before they began playfully bickering. 

Xigbar huffed in frustration. How were they supposed to act out the superiors great plans if he constantly kept them in the dark? 

Turning his back on the two, he started down the hallway to the left, heading back to his room. He caught sight of a figure peeking around the far corner before disappearing, the person’s swift footsteps echoing loudly in the white, empty hallway.

Xigbar pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache coming on. Nothing that a nap and some painkillers couldn’t fix. Hell, maybe a drink. After all, it was looking like he’d have the rest of the night off.

 

\-----

It was around 4:30 a.m. when Roxas stumbled out of his room and into the hallway. Axel considered, for a brief second, putting down the book he was reading. They both knew fully well that fantasy novels were a big “NO” in the eyes of the scientists.

But what they didn’t know wouldn’t kill them. So, instead, Axel swung his legs over the arm of the couch, crossing them at the ankles, and leaned back. Why not enjoy his last moments of freedom?

Roxas finally made it into the living room and stopped to give Axel a look before yawning loudly. He walked to the couch and stared for a moment before plopping down in front of it, leaning his head back to rest on the cushion near Axel’s knees. Axel paused his reading, expecting some sort of greeting. None came.

“Are you ok?” he asked, leaning forward and reaching over to poke Roxas lightly in the shoulder. That earned him and unintelligible mumble. He poked him again.

“I said it’s too early!” Roxas exclaimed. “Ugh…why does it have to be now? I can’t function until the sun comes up.”

“Well, you could always go back to bed.”

“No…I wanna see you off.” Roxas turned to glance up at Axel. “I’m not gonna _not_ say goodbye. That would be weird.”

“I appreciated that,” Axel said, giving him a small smile that Roxas returned. “Do you want to sit here?”

“No, I’m good.” Roxas settled back, wiggling to get more comfortable.

The conversation went quiet. In between to ticks of the clock were sounds of pages turning and, after a minute, of Roxas softly snoring. In a way, Axel felt guilty; Roxas had woken up early just for him. At the same time, he felt a warm and comforting feeling, one he’d never experienced before, because Roxas had woken up early just for him.

He reached the place in the book that Roxas had left his bookmark. As much as he’d love to finish the adventure, he knew he didn’t have time. Closing the book, he glanced at the cover, committing the title to memory, before setting it down. Maybe they’d let him finish it one day.

With nothing left to do, Axel closed his eyes, thinking about everything that had happened in the past few days. The people he’d known so far kept him at a distance. He was an experiment, or a tool, or one day, possibly merchandise. It’s not that they were cruel, but they could never be considered friends.

Roxas was different. He had treated Axel with respect, as if he was just another human. Another person. The meaner scientists would tell him that he wasn’t a person at all, but a machine, and no matter what false emotion they loaded into his heart…

He pushed those thoughts aside. No use in dwelling on them. 

He found himself watching Roxas as he slept, letting his thoughts wander. He thought about the android who was allowed to leave the facility. How was he doing? Was he ok? It’d been a while since he’d come into the facility for a check up.

He let his gaze fall on Roxas hair, all spikes and swirls, a carefully crafted mess. What would he think if he knew there was an android, in the shape of a boy, that looked just like him?

The sound of crunching gravel and the sight of bright lights streaming though the kitchen windows signaled that it was time to leave.

“Roxas,” he said, giving him a nudge.

“Hm?”

“They’re here.”

“Oh,” Roxas said, blinking tiredly before standing and stretching. He turned toward Axel and drew a breath, about to speak, but was interrupted by a firm yet polite knock on the door. 

“Don’t worry,” Axel said, “they’ll give us time to say goodbye.”

“Ah…right,” Roxas mumbled. He walked through the kitchen to the door, a sense of apprehension making his chest tight. 

He opened the door to find what may have been the most professional looking man he’s ever seen. With a crisp black suit and perfectly straight tie, the man’s face was serious unemotional; all business. 

Roxas would be lying if he said he wasn’t intimidated.

Even so, his eyes were drawn to the man’s forehead and the single, red dot in between his eyes. It was weird, he thought to himself. He’d never seen a guy with one of those before.

He must’ve been staring too long. The man cleared his throat and narrowed his eyes.

“I’ve come as a representative of The Garden to –“

“The Garden?” Roxas blurted out, interrupting. “I thought this was all…I mean, Cid worked for Shinra…”

“The Garden is a subsidiary of Shinra,” the man said with a soft monotone, expression remaining neutral.

“Really? I’ve never –” Roxas paused for a yawn, “never heard of the, uh, The Garden.”

“No, you wouldn’t have,” the man replied as he stared Roxas down. “I’m here to acquire the subject.” 

“Uh…yeah,” Roxas stammered. “Of course. He’s right –“

“You as well.”

“…what?” 

“The board of directors would be very interested to hear what you’ve observed as regards the subject in the time he’s been with you. You’ll be interviewed,” the man said calmly, “and compensated.”

Roxas grit his teeth in irritation. Was this really necessary? And without warning? Not for first time since this whole thing started, he was feeling put upon, and he didn’t like it one bit. 

Still, one look at the man in front of him told him that he’d be going with him, whether it was willingly or not.

“I…fine. Give me a second. Wait here,” Roxas said, stepping back and closing the door.

He turned to see Axel leaning on the bar in the kitchen, giving him a concerned look.

“You heard that?” Roxas asked.

“Yeah…are you going to go?”

“Do you really think I have a choice?”

“I…I don’t know,” Axel replied, looking down. “I know I don’t…”

“This stinks. I really don’t know what to do,” Roxas said, shaking his head. What could he do? “Stay here, Axel. I’ll be right back.” 

He made his way to his room, throwing on clothes while fighting off the sick feeling that was pooling in his stomach. Memories of previous conversations about “the facility” rose to the surface: the alleged secrecy, the threats of deactivation, Cid not being “in that much trouble yet.”

He was glad that he hadn’t eaten breakfast yet.

As he grabbed his phone from the nightstand, an idea came to him. He turned it on and quickly began writing a text message. There was little to no chance that Cid was awake, but it was worth a shot. The text he sent was choppy and filled with typos, but the overall message was clear: _Cid help there’s a guy wit a dot on his forehead from the place and I think he could kill me and he’s taking Axel and he’s making me go too and I’m scared ok bye._

A pang of embarrassment shot through him as he re-read the message. Cid would understand, would help calm him down. As he should, seeing as it’s all his fault anyway.

Besides, that old man was all Roxas had left. If he couldn’t trust him, then…

He put the phone in his back pocket and reached back to the stand for his wallet. His hand was shaking. 

As he walked into the main rooms, he immediately noticed that the man was now standing in the kitchen. He was looking at Axel, who was very much not looking at the man, and instead was staring at the wall. 

_Why is he in here and what did I miss?_ Roxas wondered.

The man noticed him and looked him over from head to toe. He apparently passed inspection as the man nodded sharply and turned on his heel.

“Bring a jacket,” he said as he walked to the door and headed outside. “The facility is kept cold.”

“It’s not the only thing that’s cold…” Roxas muttered as soon as he was out of earshot. He made his way back to his room, coming back out seconds later with a red flannel shirt slung over his arm. 

“Are you ok?” Roxas asked once he was in the kitchen again.

“Yeah. I just…” Axel said, then sighed. “I don’t want to leave. I was just starting to have fun.

“It went by quick, didn’t it?” Roxas asked. Axel made a small sound of agreement, but said nothing else. They stood in silence for a moment until Roxas couldn’t take it anymore.

“Did something just happen?” he asked.

“Um…”

“Did he say something to you?”

“No. Well, kind of. I told him the same thing.”

“That you didn’t want to leave?”

“Yeah.”

“…and? What did he tell you?”

“He, uh…” Axel looked away, running a hand through his hair. “He said that, uh, they might know more about Saïx. And that they need to ask me questions about what happened.”

“Right…” Axel was lying. He wasn’t very good at it yet, either. Roxas never pried; there were probably good reasons for him to hold back information. From what he’d bee told before, however, he figured the man may have given Axel incentive to go willing, and possibly a reminder, and none of it in the form of finding out if his brother was safe.

“Anyway,” Axel said, turning toward the door, “we should probably go. He’s not going to wait much –“

A chirp and a buzz from the phone in Roxas’ back pocket interrupted him. Roxas retrieved it, and was almost relieved to find a text from Cid. Roxas frowned for a second and set to typing out a reply when a second message came in. He frowned again.

If you go with them now, they’ll be out of your hair quicker, Cid had said, And don’t let Tseng scare you. You’ll be alright. Call me when you get back.

The relief he’d felt before dissipated. In a way, it was good to know that Cid wasn’t worried. But he couldn’t shake the feeling of apprehension of going alone. He’d hoped that Cid might offer to go with him. 

As anxiety crawled its way up his spine, a gentle hand was placed on his shoulder.

“What’s wrong?” Axel asked. “What was that?”

“It was Cid,” Roxas replied, allowing himself to appreciate the comforting gesture. He sent one last message to Cid, promising to let him know when he made it home. “I just wanted his opinion on all this.”

“Yeah? What did he say?”

“Not much.” Roxas said, pulling away as he began walking to the door. “Well, let’s go, then.”

Roxas turned off all light except the one above the sink; he had no idea if it would be dark again by the time he got back. As he opened the door, he turned, expecting to see Axel right behind him. Instead, he was a few steps away, giving the house one last look. Something of a sad smile crossed his face, and Roxas felt a wave of sadness wash over himself, mixing with the already present anxiety.

Eventually, Axel joined him and together they made their way to the car that would carry them to the facility. It was a fancy number: black and sleek, expensive looking with no brands or other identifying marks, save the license plate. To Roxas, it looked like something out of a spy movie.

They climbed into the back seat and buckled up in silence. As they pulled out of the driveway and onto the road, Axel heaved a sigh and closed his eyes.

Roxas suddenly felt very tired. He closed his eyes as well and scooted down in the seat until he could comfortably put his head back on the headrest. 

He had no idea where they were going or when they would get there. He had no idea what they intended to do with him. He had no idea about what they would do to Axel. 

He did his best to think of other things; panicking now wouldn’t help. And besides, this wasn’t the worst thing he’d had to deal with recently, just by far the strangest. He felt himself relax as he repeated over and over in his head:

We’re going to be alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I hope you've liked the story so far.
> 
> So this took forever. Unfortunately, I have some life things that make sitting down and being creative difficult at times. Still, I'm going to try to get on a schedule with this fic. New chapters posted on Sunday nights/Monday mornings.
> 
> But...
> 
> Going back through my earlier chapters, I'm noticing things that bother me. For instance, did you know that in Roxas' house, there's a small bar-like counter that separates the kitchen from the living room? No, you didn't, because i forgot to mention it until this chapter. Small things like that.
> 
> So, I'm going to take a bit of time to patch things up. I've got a few other fics, one shots probably, that have been eating at my brain. Still KH related, other pairings.


End file.
